With our Easter celebrations behind us let us look to the future.
We have a small dedicated team endeavouring to keep St James’ Church on the road, we have a wonderful little choir, a fabulous organist who does so much more than just play the organ, we have people cleaning the brass, cleaning the church, arranging the flowers, doing maintenance jobs, caring for the churchyard, ringing bells, fundraising, looking at encouraging wildlife in the churchyard and discouraging wildlife in the roof! We have a beautiful building. However, we have no church wardens, another church treasurer cares for our finances, and the secretary role is shared. On the plus side we have energetic fundraisers and we are glad to have the support of the community and are delighted to share that with the tithe barn as part of this village’s life.
However, the Church of England faces great changes in the next few months and our little church is on the edge of a deep cliff edge… We need to know what you feel you can offer the church and what the church can offer you…. I hope that, no matter what, this community can support the building as a centre of the community and a gathering place for family events, but when the choir, ringers, organist and clergy turn up for a festival service and find one person in the pews we have to ask the question, what are we doing here and is this what our community wants?
Our annual meeting is in St James Church 19 May at 6pm, come and share with us your thoughts about the future of your church.
Meanwhile remember that the church is open every day, to pray in, to explore the history, to take time out, to get your breath back after a walk or run, to eat your sandwiches if raining, to play hide and seek in or to test the acoustics by singing or shouting. Families are always welcome to visit, and if you are doing a school project or home schooling we can offer a behind the scenes look at what happens in church, the history and architecture of the building, the churchyard offers an opportunity for environmental research, the list goes on…If we can help your visit then please let us know.
